Sutra Pitakas Digest Summary (Limited)

Sutra Pitakas

The Sutra Pitakas, as one of three components of the TriPitakas, sets forth many of the teachings of Buddha. Among these teachings are the following:

Accountability

An individual is not accountable for his feelings, thoughts, actions, or mental processes. This is because he is not the doer of any of these. Because he makes no choice, he bears no responsibility for such choice.

Agency

It is “not possible” that an individual determine his feelings, thoughts, actions, or mental processes.
However, it does seem possible to determine one’s focus and to discern many things.

Birth

Birth is painful. We should live so as to be “released” and avoid rebirth ever again.

Body

The body is “aflame”, meaning it brings with it sensations and passions. Overcoming these passions is important to avoid suffering and to qualify to be “released.”
Otherwise, after death one is reborn again.

Buddha

Buddha is not considered a prophet but a wise teacher. A prophet receives revelation or communications from God. The Sutra Pitakas hardly speaks of God.

Buddha teaches that the objective of life is to be “released.” He was released through his dispassion. Consequently, there was no rebirth for him.

Stressful, Inconstant

The Sutra state that whatever is “inconstant” is stressful. All of the following are inconstant:

1—body;
2—consciousness;
3—feelings;
4—mental processes; and
5—perceptions.

Purpose of Life; Plan for Life

The source or origin of life is not described. There is not a discussion of a spirit separate from one’s body, mind, or feelings. However, there is the teaching that an individual “focus” on various things. That focus seems to be directed by someone or something outside of one’s body, mind, thoughts, or feelings.

The Sutra does not speak of a divine source or cause of life. Therefore, life may not have a purpose, but the objective of life is to be released from it through dispassion and detaching oneself from the world.

A desire for “annihilation” in the present form of existence, however, is “heresy.” Many people who die will simply be reborn until they learn how through dispassion to become detached.

God

The Sutra speaks very little of God. In the Dhammakakkappavattana Sutra, it speaks of “gods in the highest heaven of heavens.”

Happiness

The Sutra does not speak of a pursuit of happiness. Nor does it prescribe a course to find happiness.
To be sure, it speaks of becoming dispassionate regarding all emotions and feelings.
The Sutra does speak of five monks who are “[g]lad at heart” and are “delighted” at the words of Buddha.

Judging

Judging others or not judging others does not seem to be defined as an issue in the Sutra, since the actions of one or another are “not mine…[t]his is not myself.”
Judging requires the supposition that one chooses his or her own actions, as well as his own action to judge another.

Light of Christ

The Sutra does not reference the Light of Christ. Nor does it refer to Jesus Christ.
It does, however, in multiple passages in the Dhammakakkappavattana Sutra state that “within me...there arose the light.”

Love

The Sutra does not speak of any importance or value of love. It does not encourage one “to love” or “to be loved.” It does not seem according to the Sutras that any person has the ability to choose to love or not love.

Instead, the Anattalakkhana Sutra states “Any feeling whatsoever -- past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every feeling -- is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: 'This is not mine. This is not myself. This is not what I am.'”

Rather than choosing to love, the Sutra encourages that one become “dispassionate” and not be “attached.”

Lust

The Sutra does speak of avoiding attachments.
But it also states that “every feeling” “is not mine”, that it “is not myself”, nor “what I am.”

Pain & Suffering

As with love and lust, pain and suffering—every feeling—“is not mine…is not myself”, nor “what I am.”

The Sutra Pitakas speaks often of pain. Among its many teachings are:

(1) Birth is painful;
(2) Death is painful;
(3) Decay is painful;
(4) Disease is painful;
(5) Union with the unpleasant is painful;
(6) Cravings that are unsatisfied are painful;
(7) Pain results from existence as an individual. To be sure, most everything about our body causes us to be “aflame” with senses and passions.
(8) For example, eyes and sight, ears and sounds, tongues and taste, noses and odors, the mind and mental consciousness are all “aflame” and as part of the body because they bring sensations and passions.
(9) Therefore, in the Anattalakkhana Sutra, it states that a disciple should grow “disenchanted” with the body, become dispassionate, and then be “released.”
(10) It is not clear who, or what part of man, should choose to become disenchanted and dispassionate. Presumably it is not the body or mind itself.
(11) Regarding the destruction of suffering, the Sutra states: “Verily, it is the destruction, in which no passion remains, of this very thirst; the laying aside of, the getting rid of, the being free from, the harbouring no longer of this thirst. “This then, O Bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering.”

Eight-Fold Path

To achieve this destruction of suffering, the Sutra Pitakas teach an eight-fold path which includes all of the following:

(a) Right aspirations;
(b) Right conduct;
(c) Right contemplation;
(d) Right effort;
(e) Right livelihood;
(f) Right mindfulness;
(g) Right speech; and,
(h) Right views.

What part of self is capable and responsible for these choices is uncertain.
The Bhagavad Gita states that the soul is responsible for one’s happiness. The Abrahamic texts indicate that the spirit in combination with the body make choices which bring happiness.
By comparison, the Sutra Pitakas state that “it is not possible (to say) with regard to mental processes, 'Let my mental processes be thus.’” It also states, that “it is not possible (to say) with regard to feeling, 'Let my feeling be thus.’”

Five Aggregates

The Sutra Pitakas state that there are “five aggregates which spring from attachment (the conditions of individuality and their cause are painful…).”

These five aggregates are:

1—body;
2—feelings;
3—perception;
4—mental processes; and,
5—consciousness.

Self

The Sutra Pitakas state that all of the following are “not self”:

Body;
Consciousness;
Feelings;
Mental Processes; and,
Perceptions.

Summary

In summary, the Sutra Pitakas teach that we are not our body, thoughts, or feelings. It explains how the elements of our body—sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch—bring passions. Unsatisfied passions or cravings are the source of suffering.
The Sutra Pitakas therefore encourage that we become dispassionate and detached from all sensations and desires.